So What's With the Outfit?
by CinnamonStyx
Summary: After discovering an old picture, Oracle and Black Canary reminisce about Dinah's days with Justice League International.


**A/N:** _So first things first, this story takes place in the Pre-New 52/Rebirth continuity some vague amount of time after Infinite Crisis. Speaking of which, there are spoilers for Infinite Crisis in this story if you care about not being spoiled on it. Also, I guess to have more context for this story it helps to have read the '80s Justice League International comics. Because I reference that series a lot in this story. Hopefully, it still works regardless. I'll let you, the reader, be the judge of that though._

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"Hey Dinah, what the hell is this?"

Dinah looked up from the pile of evidence that was in front of her and Oracle. It had been a long night of working. The other member's of the Birds of Prey had gone out to investigate in the field while Barbara had made Dinah stay back at home base with her to do some research there. So far most of it had been boring. And potentially useless since, the way Dinah had figured, the others would catch the guy they were after without too much additional input.

"What are you talking about?"

Barbara turned her wheelchair as Dinah looked to her side to see her holding a framed photo.

"I found this old photo of you and some other superheroes… It doesn't seem like the Justice League" Barbara handed the picture over to Black Canary. "Looks like it was taken at the United Nations. What's going on here?"

Dinah stared down at the picture and a sudden trip down memory lane began. It was just like Barbara had said, the photograph showed Black Canary with quite a few other people she knew. Judging by the people around her, it looked like a photo op as part of Dinah's short stint as part of the Justice League International.

A lot was going on in the photo. Centre stage was Booster Gold, Blue Beetle, and Mister Miracle. Booster and Beetle were mugging for the photo while Mister Miracle appeared to just want to get his face in the picture.

To the left of those three were Batman, Martian Manhunter, and Dinah herself. Batman and J'onn looked like they wanted nothing to do with the people next to them. Although, they typically had that effect. Dinah looked at herself and it appeared that she seemed to be smiling in the photo. Although if she remembered correctly, she was likely just putting on a good show for the cameras in that picture.

To the right of the picture stood Mister Miracle's assistant and partner Oberon, Guy Gardner, Captain Atom, the Russian man in the metal armour Dinah couldn't remember the name of (She knew it was either "Red Rocket" or "Rocket Red"), and the, at the time, main funder of the League; Maxwell Lord. Gardner and Lord clearly had no idea what they were doing as both of them were looking away from the camera while Captain Atom and Rocket Red looked as if they did not want to be in the photo at all.

"Well Dinah, can you tell me about the picture?" Barbara spoke up again, making Dinah realize how long she'd been staring at the photo.

"I think it was taken before either of us really met, you were probably still Batgirl…" Dinah tried to remember more details. "We were called the Justice League International. Do you remember any of this? That guy in the business suit with too much product in his hair, he was Maxwell Lord. Of course, back then he was just a corporate scuzzball and not… Whatever he became."

Barbara hones her vision in on Maxwell. "Oh, I remember him. Wonder Woman killed him a while back, didn't she?"

"He deserved it. I don't know what happened to him. He used to seem like a normal guy… Well, he was a jackass. But a normal jackass at least."

"I recognize almost everyone in the picture…" Barbara picked up the photograph again, studying it. "Except _him_." she pointed at Rocket Red.

"Oh, that was… I think his name was Rocket Red. The Russian government has a task force full of expendable guys in flying suits of armour." Dinah noted the number seven painted on to his suit. "This guy, he ended up being a Manhunter sleeper agent. Tried to kill us when all the Manhunters went berserk that one time. Remember that? His replacement was a bit better though."

Barbara puts down the picture. "You never talk about this team very much. Did something happen to them?"

"It feels like a long time ago. Plus I never really liked most of them." Dinah grabbed the photo again. "Booster Gold and Blue Beetle always acted goofy when they were together. I grew to like Beetle later though."

"Oh yeah, he's helped us out a few times hasn't he?"

"Before Maxwell shot him." she bitterly added. "Nobody on our team ever really liked Lord. He _hired_ the Royal Flush Gang to attack us. Just to make Booster look good. He was always slimy, but he didn't seem _evil_… We thought he had good intentions… Guess we should've seen it coming."

"That's the past now, let's not think about it." Barbara moved closer to Dinah, in a move she intended to be comforting.

"I wasn't even in the League for that long. A couple of months after this picture was taken I quit the team."

"Because of Lord?"

"Yeah, but part of it was Gardner. _Chauvinistic douchebag…_ The one good thing about him being on the team was that Batman got to punch him. He started acting a little funny before I left, that was even worse than when he was an asshole." Dinah paused. "But honestly, I mostly left because I had better things to do. Not to mention I felt out of place there. It was like me, Batman, and a few others were just surrounded by weirdos." she places down photo one more time.

"So I guess you don't miss it much?" Barbara smiled.

"Not really. The team did just fine after I left."

"Hmm, there's one last thing I want to know about." Barbara grasped the framed photograph again. "What's with your outfit?" she stifled a laugh and pointed to the past version of Black Canary in the picture. "You look like you're about to go to an aerobics class."

It's at this point when Dinah noticed one of her older costumes. It was a major departure from her other costumes. For one she'd been wearing a headband and excessive amount of hairspray around this time and had ditched her traditional fishnets for tight spandex leggings. Inversely, the top of her costume was strangely baggy, looking like it was made for someone a few sizes bigger than her. Two other major highlights of her costume were a large feature around her neck that resembled a big turtleneck and an enormous emblem of a bird on her chest that formed into shoulder pads eventually.

"Oh, _that_. I was going through a phase." Dinah cocked her head at the photo and smirked. "Trying to be experimental, modern. Lemme guess, you don't like it?"

"Well, first off, it looks like you're a time traveller from the '80s." Barbara handed the photograph over to Dinah again. "What was this _'Phase'_ you mentioned?"

"For one thing, I was going over some weird body image issues. It was like I was in high school again." Dinah laughed a little to herself. "I felt self-conscious about my fishnets and the cleavage I was showing off and all that other stuff. I was also worried it looked too much like my mom's old costume back when _she_ was the first Black Canary. Guess I was trying to be my own person. I really could have made some better decisions with the costume though."

"Do you ever wonder if you'd do thing differently if you had the chance to go back? And not just changing the costume. I mean making a serious difference. I think about that sometimes. How thing could've been different for me…" Barbara sighed.

"Well, I'd like to be the one to punch out Gardner instead of Batman. And maybe kick Maxwell's ass before he can go full-on supervillain. But… I think I'm happy with how everything is now."

Barbara smiled. "Yeah, I think I'm happy too. Well, mostly. Come on Dinah, let's get back to work." she began looking through the papers in front of her again.

"Right…" Dinah nodded and put the photo back on the table. She adjusted it so she could better view it. Sure, maybe her days on the JLI weren't her proudest achievements but she was glad it happened. Besides, she had work to do now and the past was stuck where it was. After casting a glance at Oracle, Dinah goes straight back to work.

**The End**

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**A/N:** _I just now realize that my last few stories could all be summed up as "Two people having a conversation for the whole story". I'll try to break out of this pattern in the future. Also, it's been a while since I've read Birds of Prey (Or anything with Barbara as Oracle in it for that matter) so I hope I did a good job of writing Dinah and Babs interacting. Oh, one quick fun fact before I'm done here. The photograph that Barbara finds is actually based off a group shot from the end of Justice League International #7._


End file.
